Tony Mowbray won the tactical battle against his one-time young protege when the Sky Blues beat Gary Caldwell’s newly-relegated Wigan Athletic 2-0 on the opening day of the season.

Although tipped as favourites to bounce straight back up, the Latics were given a reality check welcome to League One by a City side that looked every bit the promotion contenders that day.

While Mogga’s men set supporters’ hearts racing with another fresh Championship scalp when they demolished Millwall 4-0, rising to top spot by late November, Athletic took time to get going.

But eight months on and the two sides have passed each other in the table as Wigan have built formidable momentum that climaxed last week when they knocked long-time leaders Burton Albion off their perch while the Sky Blues have been in free-fall, burnt out by Christmas.

“I would imagine they’ll win it now,” said Mowbray.

“They have got good players, recruited some of the best players out of this league, some players out of the Championship and had some good players already.

William Grigg celebrates with team mates after scoring the first goal for Wigan

“They won the FA Cup only three years ago and their salary levels must be seven or eight times bigger than ours and, ultimately, you get better players if you can pay more money.

“That doesn’t mean we can’t go there and beat them, of course. It’s a real challenge and I have already said to the players they should go and look forward to it, go and express ourselves and let them feel our quality.

“I’m sure it will be a nice pitch and it should be a good game for us. Sometimes you look forward to these games and then their quality counts on the pitch but we got a good result on the opening day of the season so we have nothing to fear. And yet they have changed the team a bit, brought a few players in.”

He added: “I think it’s a tactical challenge. We still feel as if we’re a decent team from the way we have played in the last three or four games. We haven’t scored the goals to prove that but we have probably been the dominant sides in the games and haven’t got the rewards, for whatever reason.”

“He’s a good football man, a smart man and articulate guy who wants to play football a certain way,” said Mowbray, who shares a similar football philosophy to the former defender who had a season on loan with the Sky Blues from his first club Newcastle United in 2002/03.

“I would have thought Roberto Martinez would have been his biggest influence playing his back threes and spread-out football.”

He added: “Your first job in management is very important because if you fail it’s very difficult to get another job. It’s been a pretty spectacular opportunity for him at Wigan who were in the Premier League only a few years ago.

“Coming into a league where they have by miles the biggest budget but he’s still had to manage the players and get rid of those on the biggest salaries and had to find the best players to replace them, so there’s been a lot of movement in and out.

"He’s stabilised everything and got them moving in the right direction, so he’s done a good job and it looks to me they’re going to get the job done.

“It will be a different test if they get promoted, of course, but it’s all part of the test to see if you can keep regenerating your team.

“I think it’s important they get back because as other clubs like Coventry have shown, if you don’t bounce back straight away your revenue streams disappear and you get problems, particularly if you have players on high salaries.

“Championship players might be earning £10,000 a week, half a million a year, and you’ve got three or four of them, that’s £2million before you start so you try to move those players on if you can.

“But if they’re not performing well enough because they’re part of a relegated team then no-one wants them. So Gary has done a good job.”